As a new dawn in FIFA's awards history broke inside London's Royal Festival Hall, Ronaldo also didn't turn up at the ceremony to be dethroned in person by his former Real Madrid teammate despite being in the final three alongside Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah.

Ronaldo, who left Madrid in the offseason to join Italian champion Juventus, was knocked out of the World Cup in the round of 16 with European champion Portugal.

Salah scored a record 32 goals in a 38-game English Premier League and helped Liverpool reach its first Champions League final in 11 years.

Meanwhile, Belgium's Thibaut Courtois added the FIFA goalkeeper award to the Golden Glove he collected in Russia for helping his side to third place with three clean sheets.

The 32-year-old Marta, whose Orlando Pride team reached the US National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) playoff semi-finals, had won the previous FIFA Women's Player of the Year award five times, most recently in 2010. She scored 13 goals for the Pride and contributed six assists last season.

The Brazilian, who led her country to the Copa America title in April, beat Olympique Lyonnais pair Ada Hegerberg of Norway and Dzsenifer Marozsan of Germany to the award.

"It was worth all the sacrifices," the striker said.

Marta receives her trophy for the Best FIFA Women's Player of 2018 Award [Ben Stansall/AFP]